The Single Greatest Thing In Each James Bond Movie
14. For Your Eyes Only - The Brilliant Course-Correcting
The Roger Moore era of the franchise kept getting the tone completely wrong. Much like the MCU, which has developed a problem of killing any real tension with lacklustre comedy, the Roger Moore films focused too much on jokes, which then made them impossible to get invested in or take remotely seriously.
To add insult to injury, a lot of the comedy from this era was bloody awful.
That's why For Your Eyes Only is so great. It's like an antidote to the tonal problems that plagued The Man with the Golden Gun and Moonraker.
The film beautifully balances escapist thrills and gags with a measured, believable and, at times, surprisingly moving story. The action is crazily thrilling without ever becoming too dumb to take seriously, the film's central romance works surprisingly well, and furthermore, with its fairly low-key Cold War plot, this one will probably appeal to fans of the earlier films a bit more as well.
Some of the tonal problems from the other Moore offerings are still there a bit, particularly in a ghastly comic relief character named Bibi Dahl (Lynn-Holly Johnson), but for the most part this is an exceptionally satisfying course-correct for the series.
It also features Roger Moore's best performance as Bond; he always shone whenever he was performing Bond's darker moments, and it's a shame the franchise didn't take advantage of this more.